Posted on December 16, 2009 by Eric
On December 2nd when my Google account was disabled I sent out an email asking them to explain why the service was disabled, and I gave an explanation about the campaigns that I thought were the issue.
I didn’t exactly have high hopes for my account, but in their initial email Google had said you can dispute the account detonation by emailing them.
Here was their response:
Hello Eric,
As mentioned in our previous email, your Google AdWords account has been
suspended. We are unable to revoke your account suspension, and we will
not accept advertisements from you in the future.
Please note that our support team is unable to help you with this issue,
and we ask that you do not contact them about this matter.
As noted in our Terms and Conditions, Google reserves the right to
terminate advertisements for any reason. To view our Terms and Conditions,
please visit https://adwords.google.com/select/tsandcsfinder .
We appreciate your cooperation.
My cooperation? I didn’t exactly have much choice in the matter did I? It seems to me that even a bad campaign that was setup over 8 months ago can get you in bad with Google… and they don’t forget a thing.
Google I love you… you make awesome software… Google Android rules… I love your search engine… your email rocks… you have a ton of traffic and it’s fairly decent as far as conversions go… but god damn is your customer support bad. I don’t know of any other company that would just stop giving you service without explaining themselves.
That brings me to a new point. There are a TON of other traffic sources out there for promoting affiliate offers. Over the next couple of weeks I am going to go over my initial experience with some of these other traffic sources and let you know how the traffic they have converts.
Posted on December 7, 2009 by Eric
About three months ago I joined up with Peerfly, but I didn’t start promoting offers through them until just before Black Friday… And if you didn’t take advantage of Black Friday, then you really missed out.
Peerfly is a CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) affiliate ad network that is really starting to take off in popularity. There are a ton of CPA networks out there, and I’m a member of a good number of them. But Peerfly struck me right away as being different.
Why? Well, first it was their software. They are setup on a site that is really easy to use, and looks way more professional than a lot of CPA networks out there… plus they have a mobile subdomain that allows you to check your stats from your phone… and not just your iPhone (I’m looking at you Neverblue… I have an HTC Hero).
What I like about Peerfly
They toss your account balance in any emails that they send out to you.
They have a mobile page to check stats.
New software is slick and easy to use.
AM was easy to get ahold of, and quick to answer instant messages.
Almost 300 offers and a ton more being added all the time.
It’s super easy to add your own tracking pixel to any offer you are promoting.
Easy sign up process.
Multiple tracking domains to choose from.
What I don’t like about Peerfly
My AM was almost non existent when I first signed up… keeping this in mind, when I took the initiative to contact him he was very helpful so all in all my experience has been awesome.
I would like to have a global tracking pixel placement.
You can’t run quick reports by subid.
All in all my experience with Peerfly has been above average and I recommend getting an account if you’re looking to expand your reach with CPA offers, or even if you’re just starting out.
Also, though I’m not a big affiliate by any means, I was able to get about %40 ROI over the Black Friday weekend with a number of zip/email submits on Peerfly.
Click here to check out Peerfly and to apply.
Do you have any experience with Peerfly? Let me know in the comments.
Posted on December 7, 2009 by Eric
I quit my job just over a month ago. I was working at a pretty old and established internet marketing company for a little over a year and half and it was time for a change.
I do not intend to get another full time job. I am currently working on a number of contract projects, and I intent to stay in a “freelance” state of mind from now on. I hate 9-5 jobs, and I’m finally out. I intend to keep it that way.
The first full time job I ever had was working for Boston Pizza. It was a pretty decent job for a 15 year old, and I eventually ended up managing the kitchen after a few years. I learned a ton from that job, and I don’t regret it… even though it really sucked sometimes.
I’ve worked construction, tech support, sales, auto body repair, at a golf course and as a web designer. All of these jobs have been great learning experiences, but none of them really fulfilled my need to constantly grow at my own pace… Running my own company allows me to do this.
So far here are the advantages of working as a contractor that I’ve experienced:
Freedom of time
For the most part I can work hours that I choose, and in locations that I choose. I don’t have to be confined by someone else’s idea of a work day.
Extra Cash Flow
My cash flow has increased because of the lack of income tax being deducted off of my cheques. Sure I have to put money aside for this purpose, but having the extra cash in low income times will help, whereas I can always put away more later on.
More motivation
I can work a 5 hour day and get a normal day’s work done. In fact, at a 9-5 job there is probably only 4 hours of solid work that goes on in a full work day. All the other time is wasted. This means that I can start at 7am and get all of my work done before noon… time for some sun!! This means I have more motivation to work harder.
Whenever there are advantages, there are disadvantages… you’ll notice some similarities:
Lack of time
Sometimes I have to work around deadlines. This means I have long hours and I have to put off the things I would rather be doing… like launching affiliate marketing campaigns.
Less Cash Flow
I have more expenses… which means less money. This means I will have to pay less tax at the end of the year, but in the short term sometimes big cash months will have to go towards equipment that I need instead of toys. I also no longer have a dental plan, which means future expenses on my teeth etc.
Less Motivation
I know that I’ve completely mirrored the advantages, but sometimes when working at home you simply have no motivation… this leads to slacking… and slacking leads to late nights to finish a project. Freelancing takes a lot of self discipline, but I think I have what it takes to keep going.
All in all I am freaking stoked about not working a 9-5er and I think that everyone should at least try it at some point in their life. I mean, sure sometimes you have to work super hard and lose some sleep… but other times you can sleep in and head outside for a run while everyone else is spouting bullshit at the water cooler trying to avoid their boss and their desk.
Are you a freelancer, or have you done it in the past? What other advantages/disadvantages have you run into?
Posted on December 4, 2009 by Eric
Ok, this is a bit of a rant as well…
Adsense and Wordpress are ruining the internet. Yeah I said it… and I suppose it’s a bit ironic that I’m typing this into a wordpress site, but my statement still stands.
Adsense has given everyone this stupid dream that they can make huge cash on the internet just by starting a site and slapping some stupid content onto it. The result? Thousands of blogs with adsense ads all over them that have no value at all. The internet is riddled with them!
And of course none of this would be possible without the help of Google’s partner in crime Wordpress. Wordpress makes it so damn easy to start a site that you’ve got even more potential for crap on the internet. It makes it easy to optimize any pages for none other than Google… and in doing so pushes some piss poor site with no real content to the top of the search results.
I don’t want to read your poorly written article on the Motorola Droid. I want real content.
It’s too bad it’s only going to get worse.
Also, as a side note… has anyone ever wondered where all the adsense revenue from all of these crap sites goes? I mean, they can’t be making the minimum payout for G can they? Where are all of thousands of $56 account balances going to go? hmmm…
Posted on December 3, 2009 by Eric
There’s a lot of buzz this morning about Google and their mass banning of thousands of Google Adwords accounts. Essentially, it looks like Google has “disabled” the accounts of anyone who has EVER run any questionable campaigns… even if it was years ago.
Here’s the deal. They send you this email:
We are writing to let you know that your Google AdWords account has been disabled due to one or more serious violations of our advertising policies related to Landing Page and Site Quality. As a result, your ads will no longer run through the Google AdWords system and we are unable to accept advertising from you in the future. Please note that future accounts you open will also be disabled.
As part of our commitment to making the AdWords experience safe and effective for our users and our advertisers, we routinely review the landing pages that our advertisers promote through our search and content networks. If we find that an advertiser has submitted a landing page that egregiously violates our policies, we reserve the right to take immediate account-level action.
Landing pages advertised via AdWords must have relevant, original content, and must be transparent about the nature of the business being promoted. Further, advertising certain types of sites will lead to immediate account disabling. These types of sites include, but are not limited to:
* Sites that charge users or collect personal information in exchange for a product that is never delivered
* Sites that charge for “free” software
* Sites that trick users into paying for fake or poor-quality content
* Sites that charge users for information that makes unrealistic promises of financial or personal gain
* Sites that install malware software on a visitor’s computer
Please note that this action is related to sites that have recently been advertised through your account. In a review of your account history, we found that your account had submitted a least one site that egregiously violated our advertising policies. Although you may have removed these sites since our latest review, advertisers that have a history of promoting these types of sites are still subject to account-level disabling.
And that’s it. If you respond to them, they seem to ignore you (so far at least). You can still access your account (I logged in this morning to get a refund of prepayment) for old data etc. etc…. but you won’t get any impressions, and you won’t get any clicks.
If you open a new account, this will be disabled too. Lots of people have tried over the years to get around it, but it seems the big G is pretty strict when it comes to being unreasonable.
Was I a victim? Yes I was… and the only campaign that I can come up with that would have gotten me banned was run about 8 months ago for about 2 hours and had 35 clicks. Everything else I have ever run on G has been pages with privacy policies, about and contact pages, and have not been selling rebills or free trials.
But do I care? Only for one reason: Other traffic sources are going to get more expensive.
That’s what really sucks about this. People who are running affiliate offers are going to run them anyways. So they are going to find new traffic sources. Traffic sources that I’ve been using for the past few months because A) they’re cheap and B) they’re not assholes.
This mass ban does have some good points to it though. I will be able to get through an internet marketing forum without seeing 10 people crying about being G slapped.
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